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Lot essay

The annual medal of 1689, just two years after the celebrations following the successes of Charles of Lorraine in Hungary, is a plea to the western powers to continue their alliance against the Turks. Suddenly however the old Holy League was in crisis, and Hungary, under Leopold I, found itself, as so often, alone in the struggle. The reverse is taken from an oval fresco by Annibale Carracci on the walls of the Farnese Gallery (see J.R.Martin, The Farnese Gallery, Princeton 1965, fig.74).